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Louisville to decide on sale of open space for U.S. 36 improvements

City would sell half-acre near Avista Hospital to CDOT for $14,575

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
02/18/2013 09:24:48 PM MST

Updated:
02/18/2013 09:25:49 PM MST

Here's the deal.

Louisville sells a small parcel of city open space along U.S. 36 to the Colorado Department of Transportation for $14,575. If the city refuses to sell, it faces the specter of an eminent domain action by the road-building agency, which would take possession of the land anyway.

How does the city feel about the whole arrangement? Louisville Mayor Bob Muckle calls it a "win-win."

That's largely because the land in question -- a 20,820-square-foot sliver southwest of Avista Adventist Hospital known as Parcel 8 -- is what the mayor characterizes as "low-quality open space." And the project it would be sacrificed for -- the U.S. 36 managed lanes effort -- offers greater overall benefits, he said.

The City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the first reading of a measure that would convey the Avista Open Space parcel to CDOT. A final vote would come next month.

Muckle notes that a bike trail -- a segment of the future U.S. 36 Bikeway between Boulder and Denver -- would occupy much of Louisville's half-acre of open space once it is deeded to CDOT.

"In my view, we're giving up a little open space but we're getting a bike path and we'll take that money from CDOT and put it into our Conservation Land Trust through which we can make other open space purchases," the mayor said.

In any case, Louisville, he said, has long been behind the effort to overhaul and widen U.S. 36 with an additional managed lane on each side of the highway.

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The first phase of the project began last summer on the east end of the turnpike. Phase II, which would reconstruct the highway between 88th Street and the Table Mesa park-n-Ride in Boulder, is scheduled to break ground in 2014 and finish in late 2015. A contractor is expected to be selected in April.

Bob Grube, CDOT's right-of-way manager for Phase II of the project, said the transportation agency has managed to make its land acquisitions in the $113 million segment with no condemnation proceedings so far.

"It is our last resort," he said of the legal proceeding by which governments can force the sale of land for the purposes of building roads and other public projects.

Even though no right-of-way has yet been acquired along U.S. 36 between McCaslin Boulevard and Foothills Parkway in Boulder, Grube said, CDOT is just a few weeks away from finalizing a deal with Boulder, which owns the majority of land along that stretch of the highway.

"I think we're going to be 100 percent without eminent domain," he said.

CDOT has budgeted about $10 million for right-of-way purchases in Phase II.

Greg Jamieson, Grube's counterpart on Phase I of the project, is working with a larger budget of $19 million for acquisitions to the east. He said nearly every mile of right-of-way between Federal Boulevard and 88th Street was acquired with consent from landowners.

"We were able to work it out with just about everyone," he said.

Joe Stevens, Louisville's director of parks and recreation, said a bike trail on the Avista Open Space will ultimately be more valuable than the land as is -- a little-used parcel compromised by its awkward configuration and proximity to U.S. 36. He said the U.S. 36 Bikeway could eventually tie into the Coal Creek and Rock Creek bike trails and be part of an extensive trail network.

"The larger public good is the overriding factor here," Stevens said.

Even though Louisville generally isn't permitted to sell open space acreage without voter approval, there are exceptions, Muckle said. Establishment of a highway right-of-way, backed by the force of eminent domain, qualifies.

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